4The Real Ira Hayes

by Urshel Taylor

Old Glory Goes Up On Iwo Jima, Mount Suribachi, Feb. 23, 1945.
Ira Hayes is a Pima Indian From Gila River Reservation Arizona.
I am Pima Indian from the Salt River Reservation , north
of Gila River. I am also a former Marine that spent many year's over seas but
I never went through the battle Ira Hayes went through.

IRA HAMILTON HAYES 1923 - 1955

Ira Hamilton Hayes is a full blood Pima Indian and was born in Sacaton, Arizona, on the Pima Reservation on Jan 12, 1923. His parents Joe E. and Nancy W. Hayes
were both farming people.

Ira Hayes was a noted World War ll hero.
Although he had a normal childhood on his reservation, his life changed
dramatically when war broke out and he joined the Marine Corps.
After he completed courses under the
U.S. Marine Corps Parachutist School at San Diego, California. He was
lovingly dubbed "Chief Falling Cloud." Ira Hayes was assigned to a parachute
battalion of the fleet Marine Force.

By the
beginning of 1945, he was part of the American invasion force that attacked
the Japanese stronghold of Iwo Jima. On Feb. 23, 1945 to signal the end of
Japanese control, Hayes and five other's raised the U. S. flag atop Mount
Suribuchi on the island of Iwo Jima. This heroic act was photographed by Joe Rosenthal, and
it transformed Ira Hayes' life for ever. Subsequently a commemorative postage
stamp was created as well as bronze statue in Washington DC.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the brave
survivors of the flag raising back to the United States to aid a war bond drive.
They were shuttled from one city to another for publicity
purposes with questionable sincerity on the part of the American
military. Ira Hayes asked to be sent back to the front lines, stating that
"sometimes I wish that guy had never made that picture".

At the conclusion of World War ll he returned to his reservation,
disillusioned by what he felt was unwarranted adoration. He began to drink
heavily resulting from well-meaning friends offering drink's in their
appreciation of his "Heroism" .

He was never able to get his life back in balance again. Ira Hayes died of
exposure at the age of thirty-two on Jan, 24th 1955. He was memoralized
by the Pima people and characterized as "a hero to everyone
but himself". He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He never married.

Any more information you need on the battle of Iwo Jima may be found in any
library.